£1 million Engineering prize honours web pioneers

Tim Berners-Lee, pictured at CERN with the NeXT computer that he used to invent the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee shares the £1 million Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering with four other engineers (Image: CERN)

Sharing the prize are Robert Kahn, Vinton Cerf and Louis Pouzin for their contributions to the protocols that make up the fundamental architecture of the internet, Tim Berners-Lee who created the World Wide Web at CERN in 1989, and Marc Andreessen who wrote the Mosaic browser that is credited with popularising the World Wide Web.

The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering rewards and celebrates individuals responsible for ground-breaking innovations in engineering that have been of global benefit to humanity.

Bob Kahn and Louis Pouzin took to the stage to accept the prize.

"Very honoured with Louis, Vint, Bob and Marc to be awarded the first QE prize for engineering," tweeted Berners-Lee shortly after the announcement. "A credit to coders and standards geeks."

The announcement was made today by Lord Browne of Madingley in the presence of HRH The Princess Royal at the Royal Academy of Engineering on 18 March 2013. The winners will come to London in June for the formal presentation of the prize by Her Majesty The Queen.

"I firmly believe our field's best days are still ahead of us," says winner Marc Andreessen, "and I can't wait to see what the next generation of engineers will accomplish."